Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of cerebrospinal fluid proteins from patients with various neurological diseases.

We subjected cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from over 200 patients with various neurological diseases to two-dimensional electrophoresis. The series included non-inflammatory diseases such as epilepsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and polyneuropathy; and inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis and neurolues. In the resulting electrophoretograms we considered mainly the region of CSF-specific proteins and the area corresponding to the immunoglobulin light chains. The former, at Mr 35 000-38 000, shows some interesting variations from one CSF to another. Samples from patients with various brain tumors show a specific change. A zone of oligoclonal immunoglobulin light chains appeared in all CSF samples with above-normal gamma-globulin content. These oligoclonal patterns remained constant and characteristic during the course of different diseases for several patients so examined. As expected, differences appeared in the patterns of immunoglobulin light chains from one individual to another, even among a group of patients with the same disease. The extent of the correlation of certain basic patterns with certain diseases cannot yet be determined.